John Child, the NewsBlaze correspondent in Kathmandu, Nepal, reports that the earthquake centered in Sikkim was felt in Kathmandu. Kathmandu is around 280km west of the Sikkim border.
John told NewsBlaze, “We got bumped around a bit in Kathmandu, but there was little damage, certainly nothing where I live. A boundary wall at the British Embassy collapsed and local media says three people were injured.”
“This was not a big event in Kathmandu, but it was our biggest bounce in several years.”
Several smaller cities and villages in Nepal are much closer to the epicenter of this earthquake, including Biratnagar, Dharan, Itahari, Belbari, Damak, Birtamod, Bahundangi and Dhulabari. We have no reports from there, but they are within 100km of the Sikkim border. Some of these towns are almost on the border, very close to the epicenter.
John says it was a fairly long event – 50 to 60 seconds, and he felt three distinct shocks; the third was short but the strongest of the three.
The real “story,” John says, is that this is a warning. The area is on a fault zone, and local construction standards are poor, with even poorer enforcement of the standards. The Big One will be 10 to 50 times stronger, and it will be as bad as the disaster in Haiti or worse.
People need to prepare.
This sort of tremor has been felt in the area several times before. John and his family took comfort in knowing that they have food, water, clothing and material to build shelter set aside in a safe place.
The bottom line is that everyone living in this earthquake-prone region should do the same.
If you have friends or relatives in this area, or you are there, please let us know what is happening, or how you are affected, and we will tell your story too.
